Google, as promised earlier in the year, is set to begin development and construction of Google Fiber in the Kansas City, Kan. and Mo. areas within the first quarter of 2012, pending various city council approvals. Building close partnerships with businesses such as the Kauffman Foundation and the University of Kansas Medical Center, Google plans to work closely with outside vendors and organizations to build up a network built for ultra-high speed Internet service that has come to be known as Google Fiber.

Google Fiber promises an internet-based technological breakthrough of a “one-Gigabyte fiber-to-home,” experiment and system with one goal in mind: faster Internet than ever known before. The experiment earned its name due to the transmission of light over a fiber-optic cable, a glass wire as thin as a hair. This method, although new, is expected to provide the fastest Internet ever seen.

Google General Manager of Access Kevin Lo said in a press release on Monday, May 16 that Google is excited to have both cities working together to operate as the launching point.

“We are very excited to announce today that we will be building both Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri together as a starting point for our fiber initiative,” Lo said. “Like the railroads in the 1800s, which laid the foundation for progress, innovation and growth in America, we believe that ultra-high-speed Internet connectivity is that platform for the 21st century.”

Senior Ryan Kavanaugh said he is excited for Google’s presence in Kansas City and that it would prove advantageous overall.

“I think it would be beneficial [for Kansas City],”Kavanaugh said. “We’re growing up and living in a technology-filled world. So I think that having the corporation move here would be a good thing.”

Fiber, expected to run approximately 100 times faster than any broadband connection, and 20,000 times faster than any dial-up connection for an Internet browser available today, did pick Kansas City for a very specific reason—to build into the present infrastructure of the city. By doing so, Google aims to create new jobs and endorse the local business.

Freshman Brienna Kendall said that, though the fast internet will be a positive thing, the economic advantages will be better.

“Even though [job creation] doesn’t affect us as people immediately, it is still way more important to have jobs than the fast internet,” Kendall said. “By creating jobs, it will help the economy, and Google could help by doing just that.”

Shawnee resident and patron Rocky Plouvier agrees, stating that he believes Google coming to Kansas City will prove to be beneficial.

“Well, from my perspective, any time you have jobs being created, whether in one state or another,” Plouvier said. “In addition to the direct impacts, the fact that they are here in the city could make other big businesses want to come here too.”

Google will further discuss the topic of creating jobs and stimulating the local economies through investment in the coming year once developmental plans are made. Google Fiber, according to the their website, promises it intends to be at little cost to the consumer, a perk for those who use technology on a day-to-day basis.

“I think [Google Fiber] would make it less stressful and aggravating,” Kavanaugh said. “There are one too many scenarios where the internet is taking decades to load a webpage, and it just drives me crazy. So having it run 100 times faster would save my sanity.”